Chapter 714: Ample Gains
Previously, Xiao Chen had spent a lot of time refining the Quintessence that he obtained from using Inferior Grade Spirit Gathering Pearls. He would not give up on his progress here.
After he consumed all the Earth Essence Fruits under a hundred years old, his cultivation advanced to a mere step shy of peak late-stage Martial Monarch.
Then, Xiao Chen took out one of his three remaining Medial Grade Spirit Gathering Pearls. He used the incredible surging Spiritual Energy of the Medial Grade Spirit Gathering Pearl to waltz through this bottleneck.
A Medial Grade Spirit Gathering Pearl was worth millions of Superior Grade Spirit Stones. Usually, it would be hard to obtain a Medial Grade Spirit Gathering Pearl even if one had the necessary Spirit Stones. It could be used to break through from Medial Grade Martial Monarch to Superior Grade Martial Monarch.
Actually, it was rather wasteful of Xiao Chen to use the Medial Grade Spirit Gathering Pearl for this small bottleneck. However, he was in a rush for time. The True Dragon’s Cave was now open. Probably most of the people had arrived already.
If he wanted to get some treasures before they were all snatched up, he had to make a substantial improvement in his strength in as short a time as possible.
After reaching peak late-stage Medial Grade Martial Monarch, Xiao Chen took out a Superior Grade Quintessence Gathering Pill. However, he was not in a hurry to consume it.
When he recalled the pain of his previous experience with the Quintessence Gathering Pill, his body could not help but hesitate.
Xiao Chen took a deep breath and decisively placed the Quintessence Gathering Pill into his mouth. After choking for a bit, he swallowed it whole.
Not long later, the anticipated pain arrived. After experiencing it once, Xiao Chen already knew what to expect. He gritted his teeth and endured as drops of sweat the size of beans dripped down.
Time slowly passed. The pain increased with every second Xiao Chen endured. Waves of torment assaulted his mind, trying to break him.
Even though he had experienced this process once before, it was still a great test of his willpower. If he was not careful, he could end up wasting all his precious efforts. So he struggled to stay conscious with all his might.
The instant the pain subsided, Xiao Chen did not feel any relief. Instead, he felt numb like he had lost all his senses.
He managed to curl his lips up in a bitter smile only much later. He said, “Probably, only someone like me would attempt to challenge such agony a second time.”
With the aid of the Quintessence Gathering Pill, his cultivation returned to that of an early-stage Medial Grade Martial Monarch. However, the hundred white clouds around the dantian all turned purple.
Xiao Chen stood up, and his aura was withdrawn, none of it leaking out. His black eyes were pitch-black like a gemstone, filled with Spiritual Energy and a glow.
With a thought, he flicked his ten fingers, and strands of purple saber Qi flew around him without stopping.
The saber Qi danced chaotically, flickering with electricity. It crackled relentlessly like a storm of knives and lightning.
The hair around Xiao Chen’s forehead fluttered. Standing in the eye of the storm of knives, he looked like an exceptionally murderous deity revealing its lethality.
“Chop!” Xiao Chen shouted, and the knives around him shot out, swiftly flying forward and tearing the air apart in an instant.
An enemy with slightly weaker cultivation standing before him would immediately find himself tattered, as full of holes as a hornet’s nest.
Xiao Chen nodded with satisfaction. After his Quintessence became purer, he could feel a distinct increase in his strength. All the agony was worth seeing this.
He sat down on the truncated mountain once more. Then, he waved his hand, and rows of Earth Essence Fruits appeared before him, all at least one hundred years old.
There were even ten two-hundred-year-old Earth Essence Fruits and one three-hundred-year-old one. Such a terrific hoard would make anyone’s eyes go red with envy.
Hu Hai and the others had already been astounded when they saw the ten two-hundred-year-old Earth Essence Fruits. If they knew that Xiao Chen still had a peak grade Earth Essence Fruit, their jaws would hang open wide enough to touch the ground.
Seeing the Earth Essence Fruits before him, Xiao Chen smiled faintly and said, “The Savage Battlefield is truly a land of fortuitous encounters for me. My cultivation would not be able to increase this fast under normal circumstances.”
Suddenly, he remembered all the strong people he saw after arriving here—An Junxi, Bai Wuxue, Shui Lingling, the Passionate Young Master. His excitement could not help but subside somewhat.
Compared to these people, what did his accomplishments count for? How could he feel so self-satisfied?
His gaze filled with unswerving determination, and he said sullenly, “It is not enough, far from enough. After the Savage Battlefield closes, I need to be able to survive against the seven giants, at the very least.”
The Extreme Yin Sect’s true inheritors had all mocked Xiao Chen. Before Bai Wuxue left, he had given Xiao Chen a grim look. If he had not stopped there, Xiao Chen would have died for sure.
An Junxi’s casual whip attack could toss a three-hundred-meter-long venomous snake into the air. Murong Lingfeng did not hesitate to use his folding fan to kill half-Sage loose cultivators.
The seven giants all viewed half-Sages with contempt, killing them at will. On the other hand, Xiao Chen was still a Medial Grade Martial Monarch.
As for the mysterious three Holy Scions, they had already left the Tianwu Domain long ago.
In the vast and boundless Kunlun Realm, these Holy Scions were the leaders of the human race’s younger generation. Their fame spread far and wide, shaking the entire Kunlun Realm.
Xiao Chen sighed slightly and said, “This world is really huge. For the sake of seeing all the sights of the world, I have to work very hard, never giving up!”
He had more than thirty one-hundred-year-old Earth Essence Fruits, ten two-hundred-year-old Earth Essence Fruits, and one three-hundred-year-old Earth Essence Fruit.
This hoard equaled an incalculable fortune. Xiao Chen spent three days and three nights consuming it all.
Then he spent another two days stabilizing the Medicinal Energy he absorbed. After that, his cultivation returned to peak late-stage Medial Grade Martial Monarch.
He was now only one step away from Superior Grade Martial Monarch.
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Right after Xiao Chen refined his Quintessence twice again, he no longer feared ordinary Superior Grade Martial Monarchs. Now that he had advanced back to peak Medial Grade Martial Monarch, regular Superior Grade Martial Monarchs no longer held any advantage in Quintessence.
Even when comparing his purity of Quintessence with that of half-Sage cultivators, Xiao Chen could hold his ground.
Unlike before, when facing Bai Wuxue’s Great Icy Cold Palm, Xiao Chen would not be forced to use the Taiji Yinyang Flame Diagram, which was not one of his killing moves.
Purple clouds drifted around the golden-line-filled dantian. The purple clouds crowded together, like clouds surrounding the moon, covering the mysterious dantian.
Xiao Chen’s vast Quintessence now was three or four times stronger than it had been before he entered the Azure Dragon Palace.
Previously, he could execute Heaven Ranked Martial Techniques for only five consecutive times before his Quintessence ran out.
Now, he felt like he could execute Return of the Azure Dragon ten times and still have plenty of Quintessence left over.
The many purple clouds around the dantian flickered with electricity. All of them were now the densest and purest lightning-attributed Quintessence.
Currently, Xiao Chen’s vision filled with purple. Occasionally, if one looked into the depths of his eyes, one would see electricity flickering nonstop there.
There probably would not be any way to resolve his strange vision in the short term.
Xiao Chen casually opened his palm, and a ball of lightning-attributed Quintessence appeared. Then, he tossed it.
When the lightning-attributed Quintessence landed on the ground, it exploded. A large, bottomless hole appeared in the ground. The moment chunks of soil flew up, the remnant electricity crackled and blasted them into dust.
When the wind blew, the dust disappeared without a trace, leaving only a yawning pit a hundred meters wide.
However, this was just a casual attack of Xiao Chen’s, a far cry from his true strength. If he had compressed it and turned it into saber Qi, the result would have been much more horrifying.
When speaking of lightning-attributed Quintessence, Xiao Chen could not help but compare himself to An Junxi, the one rumored to be the strongest genius of the seven giants.
Back then, An Junxi only needed a backhand lash to toss a three-hundred-meter-long venomous snake into the air. His vast lightning-attributed Quintessence had shocked Xiao Chen.
Xiao Chen sank into deep thought as he supported his chin with his right hand. He said, “Regarding Quintessence, I cultivate the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation, which is better than an ordinary Heaven Ranked Cultivation Technique. I also refined my Quintessence twice again as an Inferior Grade Martial Monarch and as a Medial Grade Martial Monarch.
“Even if he is a half-Sage and has very powerful Quintessence, it should not be much stronger than mine. However, why is it that even now, I feel that my lightning-attributed Quintessence is an entire level lower than his?”
A petite figure appeared behind Xiao Chen. She said softly, “That is because his state of lightning has touched the threshold of the will of lightning. Perhaps he might even have grasped the will of lightning already.”
Xiao Chen turned his head around and discovered that Ao Jiao had a lazy appearance as she yawned. With her awake, he found that she seemed somewhat different, but he could not pinpoint how she had changed.
He smiled and said warmly, “You woke up already?”
Ao Jiao rolled her eyes at him and muttered, “What nonsense! If I have not woken up yet, who is talking to you now? You are really bad at conversation.”
Xiao Chen had already grown accustomed to Ao Jiao’s temper; she needed to talk back at him first. He just changed the topic and asked, “Is An Junxi truly as strong as you say? The will of thunder is not that easy to grasp.”
She replied seriously, “That is natural. Furthermore, that was just a conservative estimate. I would not be surprised if he has already grasped twenty percent of the will of thunder.”
When Xiao Chen heard this, he could not help but feel disappointed and frustrated. For the first time, someone of his generation had surpassed him to this extent in his forte.
Even until now, he had yet to make any headway towards the will of thunder; he did not even know where to start.
Leng Tianhe had once said that to comprehend a will, aside from talent, one required opportunities and breadth of knowledge. Since coming to the Kunlun Realm, Xiao Chen had already expanded his breadth of knowledge. What about opportunities?
When Ao Jiao saw Xiao Chen’s expression, her chest tightened. She could feel the disappointment in his heart.
Her lazy expression disappeared from her adorable face. She smiled and said, “Don’t overthink this. You are already pretty good. You are not even twenty-two years old yet, and your state of thunder has already reached its peak. Furthermore, it even contains the immortal attribute.
“Once you comprehend the will of thunder, your will of thunder will be the immortal will of thunder. At that time, even if you face a thirty-percent-comprehended will of thunder, you will not be afraid.
“The most important thing is that he is already thirty years old, at least eight years older than you.”
Xiao Chen sat down and looked at the turbid sky above him. His gaze firmed with determination as he said, “There is no point overthinking. As long as this pressure doesn’t scare me off, that will be good. I have never feared any challenge.
“The fierce tiger in my heart sniffs the rose. I have great aspirations in my heart, never fearing how hard it is to achieve them.”
[TL Note: The fierce tiger in my heart sniffs the rose: This is a Chinese poem. It means that a person has both a soft side and a hard side.]
Just at this moment, a Rank 8 Demonic Beast—a Flying Celestial Demonic Panther—flapped its scarlet wings. It released an overwhelming Demonic Qi as it flew over in the sky above.
Its gigantic, black body cast a humongous shadow below, covering Xiao Chen and Ao Jiao.
He squinted and looked at the Flying Celestial Demonic Panther above them. Suddenly, the Lunar Shadow Saber appeared in his left hand as killing Qi gathered in his eyes.
Xiao Chen circulated his Quintessence for the second move of the Dragon Subduing Slash. The vast Quintessence turned from a quiet river into a strong, gushing torrent flowing in his meridians.
Hidden Dragon in the Depths, the gentleman plans before taking action; Soaring Dragon, the dragon soars through the nine heavens, shaking the world!
As Xiao Chen circulated his Quintessence, the little Azure Dragon in his dantian suddenly came out and shot through the thick purple Quintessence clouds, breaking through them.